Lix

Lix began his music career at 17 years old, as a DJ on Rude FM 104.3 FM. He became well-known on this popular London-based pirate radio station for his Sunday afternoon Jungle/Drum & Bass slot with MC Evil B, now also known as B Live. Lix worked for Southern Record Distributors (SRD), which was the leading Drum and Bass music distributor back in the 90s and early 2000s. This job gave him access to pre-release promo material, which helped him gain popularity on the station as a DJ who always had fresh music. In 2000, after having witnessed the explosion of the UK Garage scene, Lix teamed up with best friend DJ Plex, and veteran Jungle producer Bizzy B, and began pioneering a unique UK Garage sound that combined the harder edged beats and darker basslines of Jungle music with the slower tempo of UK Garage. The trio, known as the Beatfreaks, released 21 singles under the Undercover Artists label. Their music was featured on numerous compilation albums worldwide, including the popular Bass, Breaks & Beats series on Warner Music, and the Garage Nation series on Sony Music. Their most popular releases were Original Badboy, which became a pirate radio anthem, Switch, Fire, and Speakerbox. The latter landed the trio a publishing deal with EMI, which included a second single and album option. A vocal version of Speakerbox (The Special), featuring DJ Luck & Mc Neat and Munchie MC, followed soon afterwards and was received well on specialist Garage radio shows, in particular by DJ Ez on Kiss FM. The trio also remixed DJ Luck and Mc Neat's top 40 track Irie. Lix and long-time friend DJ Plex remained active DJs during this time. In addition to his pirate radio stints, Lix had a regular show on Coppernob, the Internet's first legal station. DJ Plex regularly featured on his show. The two also guested on Radio 1Xtra. Along with Bizzy B, the trio also DJ'd in Germany (as the Beatfreaks). During this time, Lix also wrote for Touch Magazine, reviewing both Drum & Bass and UK Garage singles in the magazine's new release section. The Beatfreaks music took a more commercial direction as they began compiling an album under major label interest. The album's first intended release was a track called Soldiers, which reached number 1 (on pre-release) on the Dreem Teem's Radio 1 chart. However, it wasn't to be, and the trio split in 2003, citing irreconcilable differences after an album deal fell through. The Beatfreaks legacy would live on for some years, though. In 2008, Speakerbox featured on a Warner Music TV compilation named Pure Bassline, mixed by DJ EZ . In November 2015, Lix released an album of the group's work named The Bass Anthology, a collection of 24 tracks (available on iTunes). Their music is still played on specialist radio shows to this day. After the Beatfreaks split, Lix turned his attention to solo projects. His first was in the emerging Dubstep and Grime genres, in which he helped long time friend Hindzy D set up the label Sting Recordings. Hindzy D had already achieved notoriety with a white label track named Target, and having had issues with bootlegging was seeking to establish a label. Releases on the label that involved Lix were identified by the addition of the Lix Corruptions logo on the record. The logo design was a take on the famous Godfather movie logo. The first release contained two tracks: Submarine (Hindzy D), and Candyman (Lix). Lix also plays the chords on Submarine, but is not officially credited for doing so. Both tracks were popular and marked what would become a small but important underground label, one that was heavily championed by the late, legendary Radio 1 DJ, John Peel. Of this, Lix notes: "One of my fondest memories in music is when we sent some promos of a forthcoming release to some of the top DJs on our mailing list. We used to include a feedback form inside the sleeve of the vinyl with the return address. To my amazement, the first feedback form to be returned was from the legendary John Peel. I still have it in an envelope. When you are a small label making music on a small budget and someone so important to music takes the time out to do something like that, it makes it all worthwhile. I still can't believe that he actually took the time to fill out the form, handwrite the envelope and put a stamp on it. It wouldn't surprise me if he posted it himself too. That was just the kind of humble person he was". In 2003, Lix received a demo from an unknown artist called DJ Distance. Little did he know at the time that this demo would change dance music history. Distance would go on to become one of the most influential producers in the Dubstep genre. At the time, few people were interested in the young producer's sound, but Lix immediately saw potential in the tracks. The result was the release of Tropical Rub on the Studio Gangsta's E.P. on Sting Recordings, which also featured a remix of Lix's Candyman track. The label then released Closer Than You Think, a 4-track E.P by DJ Distance. It struggled to sell 500 copies, much to Lix and Hindzy D's dismay. It was only many years later, after DJ Distance - who became 'Distance' - achieved major label and chart success, that fans would discover Closer Than You Think and it would achieve the popularity it deserved. By that time, however, the E.P. was out of print. It remains a collector's item. Lix says of the E.P: "I got on well with Greg (Distance) in the beginning, and he was so happy that we liked his music and were prepared to give it a chance. But post the release I tried to contact him numerous times and he didn't want to know, particularly when he became famous. I think that he thinks we sold thousands of that E.P. and didn't pay him fairly. The joke is that we lost money on that release. In fact, it hurt the label because people just weren't ready for that at the time. Still, I'm glad I saw that potential and was able to be an early pioneer of Dubstep, both through my contribution to the Beatfreaks sound and for signing the early DJ Distance stuff". Lix went on to feature on four of the eleven Sting Recordings releases. Notably, fellow Beatfreaks producer DJ Plex features as Doc on the Top Shottas E.P, collaborating with Lix and Hindzy D on a tracked named Rotation. In 2004, Lix and Hindzy collaborated on the release of the world's first Grime music sample CD. This was actually a university project. Both Lix and Hindzy D took a BA Commercial Music degree at Westminster University. The sample CD was part of a module, and the two decided to use the opportunity to create a commercial product. 2004 also marked Lix's departure from involvement with the Sting Recordings label. He went on to explore other music genres during his time at University, collaborating with a number of artists, including Anthony Anaxagorou - now a well-known poet. After university, Lix went to work for the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS). He left the job in 2008, by which time his involvement in music production and business had pretty much ceased. Due to a series of life events, it wasn't until 2011 that Lix began working in music again. However, during his hiatus, he still worked within the arts. In 2013, he featured in the movie Warrior King 2 (also known as Tom Yum Goong 2). The movie starred Ong Bak and Fast and Furious 7 actor Tony Jaa, and Wu-Tang rapper RZA. Lix plays an Interpol agent and is featured in varying scenes with a number of lines. Lix is currently a producer in the ambient / meditation music genre. He has also returned to his original love of Drum and Bass music and is currently working on an E.P to be released in late 2018.